Milling process.



H. M. BLINN.

MILLING PROCESS.

APPLICATION FILED nno.19,1e1q.

Patented May 30, 1911.

YMI NORRIS PETERS 00., wnsnmmou, n. c

HARRY M. BLINN, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

MILLING PROCESS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 30, 1911.

Application filed December 19, 1910. Serial No. 598,264.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY M. BLINN, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, residing at the cit of Baltimore, State of Maryland, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Milling Processes, ofwhich the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a milling process, and its object is toimprove any grade of flour middlings known by various trade names asmiddlings, shorts, ship stufi, etc., and meant to include any or all ofthat class of products from the process of flour milling, which consistsof a mixture of the starchy and branny parts of the grain, so that theywill become whiter and hence more attractive to the trade, drier,softer, and more easily mixable with water to form a slop which is apermanently uniform mixture of water with various ingredients of themiddlings. For this purpose I utilize broken wheat berries, under-sizedberries, germs removed by the scrubbers, etc., or other suitablematerials, preferably by-products of the scrubbing and gradingoperations.

In the practice of my process I pulverize the rain, etc., to be used intreating the midlings, reducing it to an impalpable powder many timesfiner than the finest commercial flour. The entire grain, including thehull or bran, as well as the flesh, is pulverized, producing a powdermuch lighter in color than the material of which it is made, butordinarily darker than the general shade of the middlings with which itis to be used. This powder is mixed with middlings in suitableproportions and thoroughly incorporated therein.

White or flour middlings are composed of a mixture of bran and whitishstarchy particles. It is notable that the bran is of a brown or darkcolor and clean, and the starchy particles occurring in the middlings donot adhere to it.

It is an important feature of my invention that the particles of theadmixed owder adhere to the bran in the middllngs, coating each flake.It is particularly noticeable that while the powder produced bypulverizing the materials to which I have referred, is ordinarilyslightly darker than the middlings, when thoroughly mixed therewith, itserves to lighten their general shade. This is due to the fact thatwhile darker in shade than the middlings, it is lighter than the branflakes, and the coating of powder on each bran flake gives it a colorapproaching that of the body of the middlings and makes it practicallyunnoticeable among the particles of lighter colored material whichcompose the balance of the middlings. Thus the product is verymaterially lightened in shade by concealment or neutralization of thedark particles.

Another important feature of my process is that the product is renderedsofter in texture by covering the hard, brittle bran flakes and sharpgranular partloles with the fine, soft, impalpable powder. The sharpcorners and hard surfaces of the bran, etc., are, in a way, padded bythe covering of powder. White or flour middlings, the prodnot inconnection with which my process has been developed, are most commonlyused as an ingredient of swill, slop or gruel for feeding young stock.This material when mixed with water to form slop, separates out, thebran and granular particles leaving the finer particles, and wholesettles as an irregular mass. Such separation and settling is a matterof but a few minutes, so that animals fed at even the shortest intervalsreceive mixtures of difierent proportions. To achieve anythingapproaching uniform feeding, continuous stirring is necessary. Even whenstirring is practiced, the last portions are found to contain a muchlarger proportion of bran than the portions of the mixture earlierremoved. Middlings which have been treated in accordance with myprocess, owing to the strong adhesion of the fine powder, do notseparate, but remain in suspension in the slop a very much longer timethan does the untreated middlings. In this way feeding the material tothe stock in a uniform condition is much facilitated.

In the practice of my process in its preferred form, before the powderedgrain is mixed with the middlin s, it is subjected to the action of acurrent 0 warm, dry air. In this way the powder is thoroughly dried andaerated so that all earthy or characteristic smells are eliminated, andthe material is rendered more wholesome. The treatment with warm, dryair reduces the moisture in the powder below the normal for grainproducts which are produced at atmospheric temperatures.

It is well known to those skilled in the art, that in milling wheat,according to present methods, it is necessary to reducethe I brittlenessof the branny coating. This is done to prevent the formation of smallparticles of bran which cannot be separated from the flour. The bran issoftened in either of two ways,one by adding water to the grain andallowing it to stand to temper the bran, and the other by heating thegrain to draw its natural moisture to the surface. The result of each isthat the outer coating of the grain, which forms a large percentage ofthe middlings, contains more than the normal amount of moisture, and thepresent product, known as middlings, is subject to quick deteriorationfrom mildew. By the addition of the abnormally dry powder to themiddlings, in accordance with my process, the relative proportion ofmoisture in the final product is reduced, and its keeping qualitiesgreatly improved.

' An apparatus consisting of a. pulverizer, a collector, a mixer, andconveyers for supplying the powdered material and the middlings to themixer, by means of which my process may be carried out, is shown in theaccompanying drawing. This is a longitudinal, vertical, central crosssection through the pulverizer and collector, showing the mixingapparatus in elevation. The

showing of one conveyer is fragmentary.

The pulverizer consists of a rapidly rotating beater 1 on a horizontalshaft 2 which may be driven by a belt from any. suitable source of powerengaging the pulley 3 The beater is in a closed chamber 4 having acentral intake 5 so that the. beater with its casing has the action of a1 ticles with some of the coarse ones pass 77 5 through th penings intothe outlet 10.

centrifugal pump or blower. The inlet 5 is connected by an uprightpassage with a hopper 7 to whichthe grain and like material to bepulverized is fed. Leadi ing from the top of the casing 4: is a pas fsage 8 in which is a rotating air lock and feeder 9 delivering into theupright passage 6 between the hopper and the inlet to the beater casing.The casing 4 has an outlet 10 to the pipe 20, the draft being checked byrotating disks 12 and 12', which fit loosely in the opening leavingannular apertures 13 and 13. The disk 12 also preferably has openings 13through its body portion. The pipe 20 connects the outlet 10 with a dustcollector 21 shown as of the whirlwind type. This discharges into mixer14 which is of any suitable type preferably having a continuousoperation. It is provided with two feeders 15 into one of which thecollector 21 discharges as shown. A second conveyer 16 carryingmiddlings, or other cereal to be treated, empties into the other feeder.The feeders and the mixer are connected by means of a belt 17 and aredriven from any suitable source of power not shown.

In the operation of this apparatus to perform my process, the grain tobe pulverized is fed to the hopper 7 moves by gravity down the passage 6to the entrance 5 where it, with a suitable supply of air, is drawn intothe beater chamber, the rapidly revolving beater furnishing an amplysufficient suction. The beater blades with the dogs 18 thereon, hurl thegrain violently against the circumference of the chamber and against thecorrugations 19 which may be provided for this purpose, reducing it toan exceedingly fine powder, hulls, and all being completely pulverized.The mo.- tion of the beater is so rapid that the friction which it andthe air carried by it generate, is sufficient to heat the air and givethe drying action to which I refer. However, this heating and othersteps of process may be otherwise accomplished. The fibery portions ofthe material which longest resist the pulverizing action are separatedfrom the impalpable powder which is the product of the pulverizer, passupward propelled by centrifugal force and are fed into the passage 6 byway of which they are returned to the pulverizer. These particles passthrough the beater again and again until their pulverization iscomplete. The separation of the larger particles referred to is theresult of the combined action of the current of air which escapesthrough the open' ings 13 and 13 and centrifugal force. All finerparticles are carried along by the air current, but part of the coarserones are disengaged therefrom by centrifugal force and thrown into thepassage 8. The fine par- The rotary motion of the mass is still kept upby the action of the rotating disks 12 and 12' and the coarserparticles, which, thrown out by centrifugal force, reach the outerstrata of the revolving mass, strike against the backwardly inclinedblades 22 and are thrown back through the openings 18 and 13 so only theimpalpable powder escapes through the annular opening 13 to the pipe 20,by way of which itpasses to the dust collector or separator 21. Thisdelivers to a feeder 15 whence it is fed still at a temperatureconsiderably above atmosphere to the mixer 14;. The conveyer 16 bringsmiddlings or other cereal to be treated to the feeder 15, and the twoare thoroughly mixed, the impalpable powder being incorporated in thecereal and the larger branny particles of the middlings being completelycoated by the powder so that their tint is neutralized with that of theproduct in which they occur, and their presence be comes less apparentto the eye. Mixingthe powder thus treated, which is completely dried andaerated, with the middlings, which, as I have stated, is usually moistand inclined to become musty, dries the product and greatly improves itskeeping qualities. It is also important that the bran thus coated acts,when mixed with water, similarly to the finer floury particles, so thatmiddlings when treated by my process, are easily mixable with water toform a slop which is uniform in texture and which is a permanentmixture, the particles of which do not easily separate from each other.

I have thus described in specific terms the single method of practicingmy process and an apparatus by means of which it may be performed.However, the specific terms erein are used in their descriptive and notin their limiting sense, and the scope of the invention is defined inthe claims:

I claim 1. A milling process which consists in pulverizing grain in itsentirety, whereby it is reduced to an impalpable powder and coatingbranny flakes with the powder thus formed.

2. A milling process which consists in pulverizing grain, whereby it isreduced to an impalpable powder, treating the powder with hot, dry air,and thoroughly mixing the powder with a product containing brannyparticles in the form of flakes.

3. A milling process which consists in pulverizing rain, whereby it isreduced to an impalpab e powder, treating the powder with hot, dry air,and thoroughly incorporating the powder while warm in a branny productthe bran being in the form of flakes.

4. The process of rendering flour middlings easily mixable with waterwhich consists in pulverizing grain to form a fine powder, heating it,and thoroughly incorporating the powder, while warm, with the middlings.

5. A product consisting of flour middlings in which is incorporated aportion of impalpable cereal powder, the latter coating the bran in themiddlings.

6. A milling process which consists in pulverizing an entire cereal,both bran and starch, whereby it is all reduced to an impalpable powder,then mixing the powder with middlings so that the bran in the mid dlingsis thoroughly coated with the powder.

Signed by me at Baltimore city and State of Maryland this 17th day ofDecember 1910.

HARRY M. BLINN.

Witnesses:

EDWARD L. BASH, THORVALD A. LEE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0.

